Espanol

 The Supreme Court has made it legal for ICE to arrest me if I speak Spanish. This justifies a remark made by one of my high school teachers. 

Murder

So far neither Venezuela nor the United States has released anything concrete about the identities of the eleven people our navy murdered off the coast of Venezuela. I don't know who they were.  I do know they were crowded onto a small boat without a cabin about a thousand miles from Florida. 

Trump has said the eleven were intent on smuggling drugs into the USA. But much of what this fool says is delusional nonsense he makes up on the spot. 

If the eleven were smugglers, they should have been captured and held for trial. It is against the law to murder suspects. 

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Backfire

In 2022 New York Democrats set out to suppress the Republican vote by gerrymandering five congressional seats. The issue ended up in court. Republicans won the new seats in New York (one by George Santos on Long Island) and took control of congress by five votes. 

Indians Die

 

In the year 1500 as many as 7 million American Indians lived in what is now the United States. By 1700 the population had dropped to less than 1 million. (These are uncertain estimates.)

The loss was caused by diseases like measles, new to the area, introduced by Spanish, British and French conquerors. 

American health care today is led by a flea-munching crackpot who kind of likes measles. In the eyes of MAGA, children who can't shrug off measles don't have the manly European genes needed to make America great again. 

Estimating the Native American population in 1500, 1600, and 1700 is challenging due to limited records and significant disruption from European colonization, disease, and conflict. However, historians and anthropologists have provided widely accepted estimates:

🌎 Entire Americas (North, Central, and South America):

• 1500: 50–60 million

• 1600: ~10–20 million

• 1700: ~8–10 million

🇺🇸 Present-day United States:

• 1500: 3.8 to 7 million (some estimates go as high as 10 million)

• 1600: ~1.5 to 2 million

• 1700: ~600,000 to 1 million

These numbers reflect the devastating impact of diseases like smallpox, measles, and influenza introduced by Europeans, as well as displacement and warfare.

Key Notes:

• Most of the population decline happened before sustained European settlement in many areas, due to disease spreading ahead of contact.

• Estimates vary widely depending on the methodology used (e.g., archaeological evidence, early European records, oral histories).

Mamdani

I'm going to assume, for sake of argument, that the next election will be mostly honest and honored. Not a fake.

In the 31 American states keeping track of newly registered voters, Republicans are out-registering Democrats in 31 states out of 31. 

Polls show that Trump is unpopular, the Republican party is unpopular and the Democratic party is the most unpopular. 

Why are the Democrats failing? And why don't they care more? 

The party leaders, centrists from the last century, focus on keeping control of the Democratic Party, a cash cow.  To do that leaders believe they have to squelch AOC  and other young representatives of the center-left. 

As things stand the Democratic Leaders offer thin oatmeal. They promise to fight climate change but not enough to matter. They sent just enough arms to Ukraine to keep Ukraine slowly retreating. Democrats let Israel starve Palestinians. They saw to it some but not all Americans have health care. 

In the NYC race for mayor, Zohran Mamdani argues for free bus rides and so on, and he's now the leading candidate. He plans to give ordinary people help. It's certain that some of his ideas won't work (see FDR). But some will. 

The limping Democratic leaders are throwing a fit, calling Mamdani a pinko. Maybe he can show Democrats how to win. 

 

  

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Fort Bliss]

 

Our nation once used Fort Bliss, aka Camp East Montana, in WW II to incarcerate Japanese-American citizens. Today it is back in use to hold brown-skinned people snatched off sidewalks by ICE. 

Apparently we will need this giant massing of summer tents from time to time, during our Fascist periods.

Today our elected leaders hold around a thousand brown men at Fort Bliss. A deranged spokeswoman for ICE claims the internees are murderers, gang members, pedophiles and rapists. In fact about 80% are farm workers, carpenters and day laborers. 

If ICE is running short of rapists and pedophiles to arrest, why not clean out the White House?

 

Gerrymander

The 2026 election is shaping up as a contest between the Gerrymander Party and the Other Gerrymander Party. 

I am not suggesting the two parties are equal, except when it comes to gerrymanders.  

Let's be clear. Politicians adore safe seats. Once you get elected in a gerrymandered congressional district, you have a job for ten years. You can smile, age and sleep until noon.

One side wants to suppress liberal voters of color. The other hopes to suppress conservative white voters. Both sides will pretend that the only choice is between gerrymandering or losing. They see no third, fourth or fifth election strategy. 

California voters, in polls, support suppressing conservative white people. 

Californians, including me, will vote on the issue.

 Spinoza (and Spike Lee) argue that doing the right thing is what makes people happy.

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Trump Ascends to Heaven

Putin just played Trump like a kazoo. 

Trump hopes to find a road to peace in Ukraine. At the moment, the only possible road is for Ukraine to surrender, which is awkward. But Trump apparently believes that a peace treaty will help his own case with the Christian God.

According to the New York Times, the doddering lecher is talking about how he can save his soul. That may be his major source of motivation.  

So he's out in public with swollen ankles, sagging jowls and brainless blabber. He's beginning to see time is limited. And so far he's lived like an alligator. 

"I want to try to get to heaven if possible," the President said on Fox and Friends on Tuesday. 

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Fascism Arrives

Governor Newsom has said that we must "meet fire with fire." He's talking about fascism, not fires. 

We must meet fascism with fascism?   

The gov, a strongman, intends to call a statewide vote on whether to discard (for a while) our nonpartisan congressional districts and replace them with carefully gerrymandered districts. 

The Namby Pamby party became committed to gerrymandering last week; suddenly anyone who disagrees is a weakling.

Who wants to be weak? I expect voters to go along. Going along is how Mussolini, Hitler, Putin and Trump were first elected. 

I'm not a contrarian. I vote Namby Pamby, not for Raving Loonies.  But gerrymandering is wrong, isn't it.  

 

Historical Footnote: When California voters created non-partisan districts, it was over the dead bodies of the Namby Pamby and Raving Loony leaders (except for the Terminator). Politicians enjoy the security of gerrymandered districts as much as Trump enjoys the company of fourteen-year-old girls.